Subject: A shiny green visitor!
Location: Near Altmar, NY
August 25, 2015 9:20 am
We live in a rural area about 40 miles north of Syracuse, New York, close to a now extinct village called Altmar. Our property borders wooded state land which surrounds a beaver pond that is also on the back of our woods. We recently had the sad experience of having to remove a large maple tree due to disease. It had started not even as tall as our home but by the time we removed it, it was towering over it. In cutting wood from the downed tree and sorting out leafy branches, this bug ended up on my husband’s pants. It is very unusual looking with a shiny light green smooth surface and it walked like a caterpillar. We’d never seen anything like it in the 20 years we’ve lived in this house. I took this picture as soon as we saw it on August 23.
Thanks for any help identifying our little green visitor!
Signature: Lisa P
Dear Lisa,
As two days have passed between the time you took the image and the time you wrote to us, we hope you relocated to another maple tree this Prominent Moth Caterpillar, possibly the Oblique Heterocampa due to its resemblance to the individual in this BugGuide image.
Our property is probably 80% maple trees and we did bring him back over to the woods after we took the picture! (My husband just told me he actually put him on a maple directly.) Thanks for the info! 🙂